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PTI / PALCO Telecom 500 clone

Started by gpo706, January 23, 2010, 04:12:49 PM

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gpo706

Another fixer upper.

This will replace mother's Ivory 746 which has recently gave up the ghost, I suspect the handset cord needs replaced as its rather tangled and ropy.

This is as descibed:

"A Vintage Retro

Manual Dial Telephone

IN WELL USED CONDITION

Some cracking to the plastic on the clear dial

Needs a good clean, has some marks

The wire to the telephone socket has been cut

The handset is embossed to the base of the handset

PTI Palco Telecom Inc"

I googled Palco / PTI but doesn't shed much light, I also assume MTS is the phoneco?

Went for £3.70 & £7.00 postage, (UK seller).

Any info gratefully recieved.

Scot




"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

bingster

If I'm not mistaken, MTS was an independent (non-Bell System) telephone company in Manitoba, Canada (Manitoba Telephone System).
= DARRIN =



McHeath

I think I've heard that as well Bingster.  Perhaps it was made for the Canadian market and eventually migrated across the pond.  Looks to be in good shape.  Notice the hookswitch plungers are white plastic and not clear, like the late model ITT/Cortelco jobs. 

gpo706

Thanks for the info, you seem to have nailed it, heres what I found under ebay US (only 3 results!) not a very prolific manufacturer, or maybe just cheaply made and not many survive?

Pics of a 2500, dated 1978.

(Mother won't mind as long as it I fix it, pretty it up and it works!)

No idea how it ended up here.

Thanks also for the Manitoba TS lead, I'm on the case...





"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

foots

#4
  I have a phone that looks similar to the touchtone that GPO706 posted but mine has no manufacturer name anywhere on it. The space on the back where the name should be is blank. The base is black and has DK500 on it. The network has no date on it but has NET. P-75335, the ringer is dated IV60, the TT pad is 35A11 and is dated 6-85 and has COMDIAL printed on the circuit board. The transmitter and receivers have the dates of 5 16 64 and 12 75 respectively and look like WE peices. The plungers are clear and this phone is modular. Any ideas on what this is?
"Ain't Worryin' 'Bout Nothin"

McHeath

Well duh, wake up McHeath, I have a PTI phone from Canada and simply was forgetting about it! ::)

It's a black WE 554 style, and has the very late refurb date of 1997.  PTI markings on case and handset, and a sticker on the back, but the chassis dates from 1967 and is Northern Electric.  So it seems that PTI refurbed units made by other makers, and was still doing this as recently as 97'. 


LarryInMichigan

Palco is the former telephone manufacturing and repair service division of GTE.  Look at telephone manufacturing and repair servic.

gpo706

#7
They are like buses these sets, wait ages for one and three turn up at once...

(all ex-MTS)!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/A-VINTAGE-CREAM-1970S-TELEPHONE-PHONE-AS-SEEN_W0QQitemZ310184879087QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Collectables_RadioTelevision_Telephony_SM?hash=item483875a3ef

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/A-VINTAGE-CREAM-1970S-TELEPHONE-PHONE-AS-SEEN_W0QQitemZ310184879090QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Collectables_RadioTelevision_Telephony_SM?hash=item483875a3f2


( dead links 03-27-21 )

Yours for £74.40 all in (cough).

Are the Canadians on an export drive or something?

BTW its not here yet, maybe tommorow, then onto Phoneco for a 12ft handset lead and replacement line cord, I'm not even sure its modular, the picture looks like a hard-wired line hole with some kind of 554 release press switch in it, any thoughts?
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

LarryInMichigan

Someone apparently bought a lot of these.  You might think that the seller would bother the remove stickers, straighten of the cord, and place the shell properly before photographing the phone if they expect to get £54.40!

Larry

gpo706

#9
Picked it up today (really need a phone shaped letterbox).

Its very decent indeed, no bad scuffs/cracks, just light surface wear which will clean off easy, no discolouration either, nice uniform cream/ivory.

I hooked it up to my linesman test set and after afew fumles with the croc clip fired 60V up it, got bell ring and then clear speech on receiver, though nothing on the transmitter, swapped the transmitter, still very low or nowt.

That wil can wait till later.

Thinks - "I have a black PST to 4 hooped US coloursl lead in the orpahaned lead home (box)"

Great idea, wrong colour lead but lets get it up and on the system right folks?

Yup wired up as per the US leads on my other 500 (using it as a reference), nothing.

Right strike that, I've tried this cord before with no success, I suspect its faulty.

Now I have a repro cream 4 spade to PST brand new line in so wired it up according to a conversion chart I had to hand. Nothing.

Quick search for "another opinion" threw up this:

http://www.evonet.com/evonet/index.asp?Page=102&Format=Print ( dead link 03-27-21 )

Totally different colur conversion from what I had - so:

US red = UK red
US Yellow = UK green
US black = UK blue
US green = UK white

On the phone it goes red L2, black and yellow L1, green A.

Now, oh did I forget to mention its hardwired case?

The clever bit is the GPO grommet for a 700, you poke the "tail" out through the U shaped hole at the back and the case sits nice and tight on it making a brilliant cord restraint!

Just tested it to a freind, slightly muffled speech his end, and I get small crackle when dial retuns on dialling but works fine apart from these couple of niggles.

Handset cord is fine, couple of twist can manipluate free, though I will get a 12ft if its going in the living room, as often the unit in their gets answered by who is nearest, and passed about a bit, or swap seats.

Tech specs:

Handset marked same as pic posted above "PTI Placo Telecom Ltd".

Body has an "ITT" mark.

The plunger stops on the inside have the stop plate glued to place not held with a screw as on my WE sets, although the screwhole is still there.

No visible date stamps on any plastic components, the trans is 3/82, rec is 12/3/79.

Network is "wavy" equals sign (=) 60, same mark is on the base, as is "Made in Canada" stamped into metal, this is what the rip in the phonco lable covers in the pic in the first post, as someone has been curious obviously.

So just needs a good scrub up and tweaking the trans/dial.

Oh yes, the dial card has "AREA CODE 204" printed curved along the top edge, then a yellow pages logo, then typed "467 - 2067", its a pretty plain lable to be honest the Yellow Pages logo is quite pleasing though, I've not touched the dial as yet, its gonna need a replacement anyway as it badly scratched by someone obviiously trying the "screwdriver to get lable cover" off approach.

TTFN

Scot
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

bingster

That phone number is still in service in Stonewall, Manitoba.  Give it a call and see if he's lost a telephone. ;)
= DARRIN =



gpo706

This gets weirder, I just took the dial off and under the card is another:

light grey border and its has an arrow pointing north and "TOP - NORTHERN ELEC. DIAL CARD"

So its a 1960/79/80 Palco/ITT/NE then? ;)
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

LarryInMichigan

gpo,

You probably already know this, but Northern Electric was the Canadian cousin of Western Electric, and they made mostly identical phones.  ITT(Kellogg) and Stromberg Carlson later licensed the 500/544 designs from Western Electric, so all of these manufacturers made identical phones with interchangeable parts.  Palco was in the business of refurbishing phones, so they probably used whatever parts were available and probably also cast their own plastic replacement parts.  I expect that the phone company in Manitoba contracted with Palco to refurbish phones for them, so your phone was a result of a refurbishing.

Larry

gpo706

Thanks Larry.

I'm beginning to pick up the threads of the company histories from various links and searches, its a bit complicated!

So its an ITT case, with a Palco branded handset, a NE dial insert and the chassis and network are both dated "= 60" (rivetted together), and definately Canadian as its engraved on the base, so could it have originally been a NE set?

The guts are only a year older than my beat-up black set.

Just finished cleaning it with standard anti-bacterial spray, and borrowed a less abused finger wheel and it looks a peachI

Unkinked the handset cord but its still "trying" to kink back in 2 or 3 places, maybe stretch it a bit, still fancy a 12ft from Phoneco, along with a new finger wheel.

Big fat curly handset cord and the ivory GPO - PST lead colour matches perfectly, better than the remnants of the original which was flat grey.

Actually looks so bloody nice on my desk, to its right is a two-tone green 746 and next to that is a red 706, if I get some polish on it can't see it leaving the desk for the moment.

I might leave mother with her flimsy modern thing for the meantime, (shame! shame! boo-hiss!).

"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

gpo706

Being diverted to some threads here on polishing, I'm settling on the "Pledge" (TM) route, as I know what it is and is a common brand over your side and here in UK.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1259.msg16337#msg16337
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"